Friday 10 May 2019

May 10, 2019 9:27 AM

Morning Briefing: Campaign for a People's Vote this weekend

In a fortnight's time, voting will be over in the 2019 European elections - and the parties are gearing up for a swift campaign that they had not been expecting. The big question will be who can stop Nigel Farage's Brexit Party as millions call for a People's Vote. Join our campaigners on Britain's streets this weekend.

Poll makes grim reading for main parties

With cross-party talks on a stitch-up Brexit deal including a customs union due to resume next week, a new poll has revealed how deeply unpopular it would be with voters in denting the appeal of both Conservatives and Labour.

The new Opinium poll of 2,000 people shows 49% would support a deal being put to a People’s Vote against 30% who would oppose the idea.

Significantly, Conservative supporters are evenly split, 43% for, 41% against, while Labour supporters show an overwhelming majority of 67 to 10% backing a new vote.

The poll makes grim reading for the main parties: asked about how they planned to vote in European Parliamentary elections on May 23, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party leads the field, narrowly ahead of Labour while the Conservatives are now just 2 per cent ahead of the resurgent Liberal Democrats.

Brexit Party

26

Labour

23

Conservative

13

Liberal Democrat

11

Green

5

SNP

4

UKIP

4

Change UK

2

Plaid Cymru

2

Other

1

Don't Know

10

Meanwhile, insiders at Conservative Campaign Headquarters think they may even come sixth, with no funding being made available for campaigning.

Sam Gyimah MP, the former universities minster, said: “Even if the Government and the Labour Party can agree a customs union deal, it will do nothing to break the spell that Nigel Farage has currently cast on British politics.

“More and more MPs and members of the public are concluding that the only way to secure a stable majority and a lasting settlement is to put this vexed issue back to the people.”

Parties hit the road for the election campaign that wasn’t meant to happen

It was a busy day of Euro election campaign launches. There was the profane motto of the previously-nice Lib Dems of “Bollocks to Brexit”, Jeremy Corbyn grudgingly admitting that a People’s Vote could be a “healing process”, while SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon stated bluntly: “Scotland does not want Brexit.”

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable was at pains to point out that the resurgent party are now “credible”, saying: “We have been leading the people’s vote argument for three years and we’ve been the pro-Europe party for 50 years.”

Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon said: "By voting SNP, people in Scotland can send a clear and unequivocal message to Theresa May that we are determined to do so, that Scotland is for Europe.

"The message we will send is this one - Scotland has had enough of being ignored, Scotland has had enough of the Westminster chaos, and Scotland does not want Brexit."

In Peterborough, where there will be a by-election on June 6, speculation that four parties in favour of a People’s Vote would unite behind one candidate ended when Femi Oluwole of young people’s campaign Our Future Our Choice decided not to stand.

There will be those who want to make a big deal out of this, but there isn’t as much going on as some might suggest.

Femi would have made an utterly brilliant candidate, but decided against it because it might have increased the chances of the Brexit Party winning, caused legal complications, and would have been hard to mount a campaign from a standing start.

The People's Vote campaign is not and never will be a political party. In order to secure a People's Vote, we're going to need to work with all parties and are best able to do that as a strictly cross-party campaign.

Join our People's Vote campaigners around the country this weekend

There will be 23 local campaign events across the country this weekend, including in Falmouth, Bradford and Stamford. You can find details of your local event on our website here and can retweet grassroots content from the day here.

It's clear that Brexit must be put to the people. Now is a crucial time to get involved with the People's Vote campaign. Sign up to volunteer today.

Quote of the Day

"I would want that to be seen as a healing process, bringing this whole process to a conclusion. Nothing is easy in this, but, our essential message has to be to bring people together.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn publicly calls out the value of a People's Vote, despite continuing to stay on the fence at the party's Euro election launch yesterday.

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